Another example of the perils of DRM

Time and again I’ve warned my readers of the perils of DRM. (Specifically here and here). That’s why I don’t buy music on iTunes and have given all of my digital music patronage to Amazon.com. Even my wife, who’s not as into FOSS and all that as I am, has become disgusted as she’s understood what DRM means for her – regular Jane Consumer.

I’m not the only one who’s made these claims. Yet others say, “you guys are just using that as an excuse to malign DRM. It’s necessary for protecting content from piracy and you just want to pirate stuff.” Oh yeah? Well, are you prepared to give up your rights to expect your paid content to work when you come back to it in the future?

…Major League Baseball has deactivated a DRM license server used to verify your worthiness to play back video of games you purchased online. …MLB’s new content and old content are managed by different license authentication servers. After making the switch, MLB has arbitrarily decided it has no intention of honoring its earlier commitments to fans who purchased downloaded games under the old system, thereby rendering many fans shut-out. …MLB is completely unapologetic to fans who’ve lost their purchased content to the horrors of DRM death.

“Shame on you Major League Baseball, this is fraud. We’ve warned Download Squad readers that buying DRM “protected” media is a crap-shoot, but when issuing those warnings we were mostly concerned about smaller media sales outlets going out-of-business in an ever evolving digital media landscape. This goes so far beyond those fears, with an active and profitable business making a clear and informed decision to yank the DRM rug out from under your purchased content.Is it any wonder non-drm downloads via P2P are so popular? …it’s …about “freedom”, the freedom to do what you wish with the content you’ve collected. If consumers aren’t given options which allow them to get their content free as in freedom, they’ll take that content free as in beer.

So, basically, these people paid money to download these baseball video clips and now they can no longer watch them. Why should they get punished in the same way as people who did not pay for these clips? Is this ethical? I don’t think so!

I’ve had my own experience with content dying on me. When I was in college I decided to buy some songs off of the new Napster. Then my computer died. When I tried to renegotiate the DRM a few months ago, it said that I can no longer listen to that music because they no longer have a contract with Napster. What kind of BS is that? This is not the kind of world I want to live in. If you agree, you should join me in boycotting all content with DRM! If you want digital music, buy CDs or buy it on Amazon.com. (If you want more indie music there’s also DRM free music at Magnatunes)